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General Motors are at it again, but this time they are loaning out their “green” Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell electric vehicles to the United States Post Office. I guess that way they’re not people’s personal automobiles, so possibly in GM’s mind, postal workers will not get so attached and protest the destruction of said electric cars. Well they will have no claim to them anyway.
GM better think this one over, I’ve heard some people who work for the postal service may be a bit sensitive, anxious, stressed and easily annoyed.
The chosen citizen test drivers are only allowed to have the car for three months. I guess that it the limit before attachment begins to set in by their test subjects.
The technology is interesting to the nerd in me.
I don’t trust them.
-Cara
I would like to dedicate this entry to my B.F.F. Donyetta C. for sending me this link. Thank you very, very much!
The site is updated daily until November 4th. Make sure to turn on your volume! It is interactive and “spot on” as my foreign friends love to say so much. : P
Enjoy and don’t forget to vote!
-Cara
Wednesday is hump day, the day that separates where your work week starts from when you work week ends. I thought what a perfect day to take a break and do something quick and easy that will make a positive difference. This day will be reserved for petitions and causes.
Our first lucky “Hump Day” winner is ONE. I first heard of these guys reading Ben and Jerry’s email newsletter. They have partnered with the organization to gain more exposer for their cause. What ONE does is raise public awareness about the issues of global poverty, hunger, disease and efforts to fight such problems in the world’s poorest countries.
In their own words, “ONE believes that allocating more of the U.S. budget toward providing basic needs like health, education, clean water and food would transform the futures and hopes of an entire generation in the world’s poorest countries.
ONE is nonpartisan; there’s only one side in the fight against global AIDS and extreme poverty. Working on the ground in communities, colleges and churches across the United States, ONE members both educate and ask America’s leaders to increase efforts to fight global AIDS and extreme poverty, from the U.S. budget and presidential elections to specific legislation on debt cancellation, increasing effective international assistance, making trade fair, and fighting corruption.”
They have a lot on their plate and much work to do, so what you can do to help is click on this link and sign the ONE Declaration and have you voice heard. It is super easy. If you want to do more you can visit ONE’s “Take Action” page and spread the word, volunteer, shop to support the cause, etc.
One person can make a difference, so do.
-Cara
Reason 89 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:
Handling livestock these days is risky business, not the least because humans are increasingly contracting diseases from the animals: Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Nipah virus, bird flu, and SARS are a few examples. “Exotic,” and often endangered, animal cuisine provides the conduit for a global pandemic. In China, wet markets display caged and invariably sickly creatures, such as cobras, civet cats, and anteaters, for consumers who want that “taste of the wild.” In Africa, the bushmeat trade is blamed for the spread of Ebola and AIDS.
As of April 2, 2008, all 50 states have either applied for extensions of the original May 11, 2008 compliance deadline or received unsolicited extensions, meaning that the REAL ID Act will not become an issue at federal facilities and airports until December 31, 2009…
What am I talking about? Did you know about this? May 11th of next month? I looked into this craziness, and according to good old Wiki, by the people for the people, ;) ,
The REAL ID Act of 2005 is U.S. federal law which imposes certain security, authentication and issuance procedures standards for the state driver’s licenses and state ID cards, in order for them to be accepted by the federal government for “official purposes”, as defined by the Secretary of Homeland Security. Currently, the Secretary of Homeland Security has defined “official purposes” as presenting state driver’s licenses and id cards for boarding commercially operated airline flights, entering federal buildings and nuclear power plants. The Act is Division B of an act of the United States Congress titled Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005.
The Real ID Act implements the following:
- Establishing new national standards for state-issued driver licenses and non-driver identification cards;
- Waiving laws that interfere with construction of physical barriers at the borders;
- Updating and tightening the laws on application for asylum and deportation of aliens for terrorist activity;
- Introducing rules covering “delivery bonds” (rather like bail bonds but for aliens who have been released pending hearings);
- Funding some reports and pilot projects related to border security; and
- Changing visa limits for temporary workers, nurses, and Australian citizens.
In the left hand corner ladies and gentleman we have, Real Nightmare Dot Org and in the right hand corner we have Homeland Security. Let the fight begin…
According to Real Nightmare Dot Org
The Real ID Act is a law signed by President Bush in May 2005, which, if it is accepted by and carried out by the states, would turn state driver’s licenses into a genuine national identity card and impose numerous new burdens on taxpayers, citizens, immigrants, and state governments.
Real ID would force the states to standardize driver’s licenses cards across the nation into a single national identity card and database. It does this by stipulating that state driver’s licenses and state ID cards will not be accepted for “federal purposes” – including boarding an aircraft or entering a federal facility – unless they meet all of the law’s numerous conditions, which include:
- Standardized data elements and security features on the IDs
- A “machine readable zone” that will allow for the easy capture of all the data on the ID by stores or anyone else with a reader
- The construction of a 50-state, interlinked database making all the information in each person’s file available to all the other states and to the federal government
A requirement that states verify the “issuance, validity and completeness” of every document presented at motor vehicles agencies (usually called “DMVs”) as part of an application for a Real ID card.
Simply put, Real ID would offer significant costs and disadvantages without any corresponding advantages:
- By definitively turning driver’s licenses into a form of national identity documents, Real ID would have a tremendously destructive impact on privacy.
- The Act would impose significant administrative burdens and expenses on state governments, and would mean higher fees, longer lines, repeat visits to the DMV, and bureaucratic nightmares for individuals.
- Yet, it would not be effective at increasing security against terrorism or bring any other benefits which would justify those costs.
For more FAQs go to http://www.realnightmare.org/about/2/.
Then according to The Department of Homeland Security,
REAL ID is a nationwide effort intended to prevent terrorism, reduce fraud, and improve the reliability and accuracy of identification documents that State governments issue.
The REAL ID Act requires that a REAL ID driver’s license be used for “official purposes,” as defined by DHS. In the proposed rule, DHS is proposing to limit the official purposes of a REAL ID license to those listed by Congress in the law: accessing a Federal facility; boarding Federally-regulated commercial aircraft; and entering nuclear power plants. DHS may consider expanding these official purposes through future rulemakings to maximize the security benefits of REAL ID.
Continuing to protect the privacy of license holders was a key consideration for DHS in the development of this NPRM [A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is filed with the Secretary of State when DHS proposes to adopt, amend or repeal a rule. ], which contains a detailed analysis of the three key privacy issues posed by the Act: (1) the connectivity of the databases; (2) the protection of the personal information stored in the State databases; and (3) the protection of the personal information stored on machine readable technology on the DL/IDs. We invite comments on whether the steps outlined within the NPRM are appropriate and adequate.
I am sure they do…for more of DHS take on the REAL ID go here and for those who are truly brave and want to know it all, Minimum Standards for Drivers Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes: Final Rule.
I’ll keep my opinion to myself on this one and just leave you with this…
;)
-Cara
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If you like the idea of being welcome at the places where your food is produced, don’t count on your not-so-local poultry grower allowing you, the consumer, to view his massive sheds of monocultured birds any time soon. Without natural immunities that could otherwise be acquired by outdoor life, his flocks need to be protected from the slightest infection. When operators are even slightly lax in applying rigorous measures of “biosecurity,” a case of the sniffles in one bird can escalate to a mass outbreak, forcing a giant cull involving millions of birds.
I’m really into solar right now, so I decided today will be the day to gather and share ten cool solar facts from around the World Wide Web.
What? You’re welcome! :P
- As for solar energy history as we know it, it wasn’t until 1839 when French physicist Edmond Becquerel first discovered photovoltaic activity.
- This discovery was followed by another Frenchman, Auguste Mouchout, in the 1860’s who invented the first motor to be powered by solar energy.
- In 1883, Charles Fritz turned the sun’s rays into electricity!
- In 1990, a aircraft powered solely by the sun crossed the United States.
- It takes only about 8 minutes for solar energy to travel from the sun to the earth.
- Solar energy is measured in kilowatt-hours. One kilowatt hour (kWh) is the amount of energy needed to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.
- If we covered a small fraction of the Sahara desert with photovoltaic cells, we could generate all the world’s electricity requirements.
- Enough sunlight falls on the earth every minute to meet the world’s energy demands for an entire year.
- Two billion people in the world have no access to electricity. For most of them, solar photovoltaics would be their cheapest electricity source, but they cannot afford it.
- Solar energy will not pollute our air with carbon dioxide and other harmful greenhouse gases and bad emissions which is one of the main causes of global warming.
In 5 billion years the sun will run out of fuel, so let’s use this baby while we still can.
-Cara
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Arsenic has been a common additive in factory chicken feed for nearly 50 years. It is used to kill parasites, reduce stress, and promote growth in the birds. The practice has long been deemed safe. Recently, however, scientists have found that the substance turns carcinogenic rather quickly after application. Arsenic-imbued manure becomes toxic to the environment when spread as fertilizer. The risk for those who ingest the meat of treated birds is, in fact, worse than once thought, particularly since exposure to arsenic is cumulative and people are eating three times the chicken they once did in the 1960s.
I am on the hunt for a job right now. The last job I was at outsourced jobs to Argentina, mine being one of them. Luckily, we received a package that has given me the time to find a job without worrying about money. This has been a great opportunity for me, due to the fact that at the time we were let go, I was not so happy at this company. I mean, I loved the people and such, but I was not really giving anything good back to the world or humanity, just taking.
Enough of all that; this is not what this entry is about, I was on Grist today looking through their jobs and found one for The Innocence Project. What are these guys all about you may ask? Well, according to their mission statement…
The Innocence Project was founded in 1992 by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University to assist prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. To date, 215 people in the United States have been exonerated by DNA testing, including 16 who served time on death row. These people served an average of 12 years in prison before exoneration and release.
The Innocence Project’s full-time staff attorneys and Cardozo clinic students provided direct representation or critical assistance in most of these cases. The Innocence Project’s groundbreaking use of DNA technology to free innocent people has provided irrefutable proof that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Now an independent nonprofit organization closely affiliated with Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, the Innocence Project’s mission is nothing less than to free the staggering numbers of innocent people who remain incarcerated and to bring substantive reform to the system responsible for their unjust imprisonment.
I think this is awesome service that we need and am really glad they exist [even if they don’t hire me!!! :)]. I remember a few years back, I think it was on Oprah, there was this episode about the death penalty in America, something she is passionately opposed to. Oprah was discussing the controversy of judges in Texas NWP (napping while presiding) during death penalty hearings. Can you imagine falling asleep when someone’s life is on the line? That’s crazy! The lawyer [I think it was a lawyer, don’t quote me, as it was years ago that I saw this episode. I tried to find information on the internet about this particular show with no luck. I will email Harpo Studios and ask them for a transcript and permission to publish certain parts in this blog. It really was insane.] said that this occurrence is so common in Texas courthouses that they have a nickname for it [I do not remember the nickname but something like NWP.]! That is outrageous! You might be asking yourself, but what can I do about it? Well…I’m glad you asked. If you click on the link below you will be taken to The Innocence Project’s web site where you will find…
10 Things Anyone Can Do To Help Exonerate Innocent People and Prevent Wrongful Convictions
I just completed number 1 two minutes ago and invited my friends to join as well. I think a society that feels they are allowed to kill some people and not others is an ignorant one. No one has the right to take another’s life, period. Sorry, I had to say it.
Keep it real people and never forget to think, just because society and the government say it is OK, doesn’t mean it is!
Revolt against ignorance!
-Cara
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Many Americans are not getting enough magnesium. Deficiencies can cause irritability, seizures, delirium, depression, abnormal heart rhythms, spasms of the coronary arteries, anemia, blood clots, abnormal blood pressure, and even death. Where do you get this vital nutrient?–whole grains, fruits, dark-green leafy vegetables, nuts, and, best, raw cacao
The Day After An Inconvenient Truth 
What Did You Say?